Reading Recovery is a reading program specifically designed for first graders. It utilizes one-on-one tutoring on a short-term basis for low-achieving students. Dr. Marie M. Clay, an educator from New Zealand, developed the program. Dr. Clay observed several students in the mid-1960s that gave her a unique incite into children's early reading difficulties. In the mid-1970s, she developed Reading Recovery with the help of other teachers and tested it in New Zealand. (1)
             Dr. Clay graduated in 1946 with a senior scholarship in education. She completed her master thesis, "The Teaching of Reading to Special Class Children," and was awarded her masters in 1948. In 1950, Dr. Clay had the opportunity to travel to the United States and study developmental and clinical child psychology at the University of Minnesota's Institute of Child Welfare. (2)
             In 1963, Dr. Clay wrote the dissertation, "Emergent Reading Behavior". She observed one hundred children during their first year of school and described their weekly progress. With these observations, she developed an outline for the assessment and analysis of changes in the students reading. (2)
             Dr. Clay has published several articles in professional journals, including; Reading: The Patterning of Complex Behaviour, and Becoming Literate: The Construction of Inner Control. She has contributed to peer-reviewed publications and is a member of editorial committees for journals such as the New Zealand Journal of Educational Studies, the New Zealand Psychologist, the Reading Research Quarterly, the Journal of Reading Behaviour, and the new Journal of Early Childhood Literacy. She also wrote the introduction to the fourth edition of Theoretical Models and Processes of Reading (Ruddell, Ruddell, & Singer, 1994).
             In 1976, Dr. Clay worked with a group of educators to develop a program that would bring low reading ability students up to the reading level considere...